


A step back is a step forward

by Sangrylah



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anders centric, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sangrylah/pseuds/Sangrylah
Summary: The Johnsons were gods. Their parents were gods, their parents’ parents were gods, they were gods. It was kind of a thing.And Anders Johnson was human.
Kudos: 10





	A step back is a step forward

The Johnsons were gods. Norse-gods. From Norse-wood. It was kind of a thing. Their parents were gods, their parents’ parents were gods, they were gods.

And Anders Johnson was human.

So very,  _perfectly_ human. 

And if  _that_ wasn’t enough – to be a genetic aberration, to be different from his whole family – he was short. Like kid-short. His baby brother, Axl, or Odin, like he  ~~ knew ~~ never was supposed to know him to truly be, towered over him like a giant over an insect.

Anders Johnson was short like a human trying to play god and knew it.

Despicable.

In short Anders Johnson was an utter failure, and everyone, himself included, was well-aware of that. 

_ _ _ _ _ _

It was hard, being the only human in his very godly family.

It was hard, knowing his brothers – his protectors, because  _he_ had no awesome superpower like being able to freeze things – were never going to tell him what they were, because  _he_ wasn’t a god. 

It was hard never being told what was happening, why some cuckoo dressed like the psychotic version of Cupid tried to kill his baby brother on his twenty-first birthday. Never being explained why his younger brother lived in fridges. Why his older couldn’t talk about Coma Rob without trying to flee, to hide, to crawl somewhere and never get out ever again, why he gave his life to a woman he didn’t love enough to marry, but did for guilt and a guy who was sleeping for fifteen years.

It was hard because, the day of his twenty-first birthday, Anders lost his family. When they brought him in the middle of the wood – and how was that not creepy, meeting in the middle in the wood in midday like for some sort of occult cult killing thing? – and cousin Olaf had suddenly called a pow wow he was certainly not privy to, Anders lost his family. First his big brother, whose eyes were large with fear, surprise and  _fury_ . Then Ty, when Mike took him somewhere on his twenty-first and finally Axl, when they took him too in the woods, never once looking back at Anders. Anders the exception, Anders the failure.

_ _ _ _ _ _

“It’s not fair!” shouted Ty.

“He’s human!”

“He’s my brother! Our brother!”

“He’s _human_ , Ty,” seethes Mike in retort. “Do you know what that means? It means he doesn’t have to know about all the shit we have to know. It means he doesn’t have to know that Mom saw her sons and decided to fuck off to be _a fucking tree_. It means he’s in danger every day, and he doesn’t even know it, isn’t even aware of it. Anything could happen to him and kill him, Ty. Did you forget Zip?”

Ah, Zip. Blinded by fire in a truly freaky barbecue accident and suddenly, magically un-blinded. Yeah. If he didn’t know his brothers thought him a moron, this would have cleared it. 

“And if something happens to Axl we all die, and you know I love him, but Axl’s not the brightest in the box and he doesn’t even look left and right before crossing the road, so really, something could happen _any_ day, so _why._ d _oes._ _ **it**_ _._ _ **MATTERS?**_ ” roars his younger brother, and Anders can’t help but be filled with pride.

“It matters because he has a _chance_! Anders has the chance to be unaware of this frankly fucked up world, Ty. He doesn’t have to know you hate yourself for your power. He doesn’t have to know that Axl could eat a bad shrimp and die and cause the whole island to crash and burn. He doesn’t have to know I almost killed my best friend because I was dumb and cocky, that I can’t make a baby to my wife because we’re not even of the same fucking _specie_. He doesn’t have to fear his home being torched because he’s human and Loki deems him too inconsequential to be a threat, or even a toy. He doesn’t have to know any of this, Ty, and I don’t want him to know, because you can’t unlearn these things. I wish I could, and I can’t.”

Silence. 

“He’s better off like this. You know he is, Ty."

“But he’s my brother,” said Ty, small and soft like he was when he used to hide under Anders’ covers during thunderstorms, like he’s never been since his twenty-first birthday. “He’s my _brother_.”

Sigh. “I’m sorry, Ty, I… I miss him too.”

_Yeah, well, fuck you too_ , thinks Anders, for once walking away from his brothers.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Anders was many things: always short off the mark, not enough, not a god – among others. He was pretty smart too. Observant. No one ever told him anything but they didn’t need to. Anders watched. Anders saw. He saw the bruises, the wild eyes, the fear, the scars engraved in pale skin. He saw all the secrets, the shared looks, the silent words he wasn’t privy to, the shared, defining happenings he would never experience.

He saw his brothers grow separate and closer until he was the only unmovable object in all the space left behind, alone and lonely, shut-away like the useless thing he was.

Anders really, really hated being what he was – short, always too short off the mark, and  _human_ . But he hated even more what his brothers were – gods, and hurting because of it.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was meant t be a longer fic but i evidently will never finish it so i decided to post it as it.  
> Title and beta courtesy of Ariani Lee ♥


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